


the first choice, the last

by QueenPersephoneofHades



Series: 2018 Whumptober Ficlets [23]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 13:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16388303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPersephoneofHades/pseuds/QueenPersephoneofHades
Summary: It is not an easy choice, but it is the only one she can make. Written for Day 23 of Tumblr's 2018 Whumptober.





	the first choice, the last

It is the only choice, as far as Aqua can see.

They are running out of time; any reservations she might have are inconsequential right now. The options are:

They can both fall, deeper and deeper into this void with no name, into a world without light, where they will both wither away and suffer.

Or, it can just be one of them.

That, at least, is perhaps the easiest part to choose.

Terra is still limp as she shifts around, sets up her armor to take him back up to the speck of light steadily growing dimmer and dimmer as they continue their descent, and she doesn’t let herself think of what that might mean. Terra is fine. Or at least he will be, once he’s out of this terrible nothingness threatening to consume him.

He will be fine. He has to be.

She cannot bear to think of what she will do if he isn’t, when she is sacrificing her escape for him. _Don’t think about it. He’ll be fine. This is the right choice._

“GO!”

Aqua lets herself drop away as her armor’s propulsion system activates with a thought from its master, rocketing back upward toward the light with Terra’s unconscious form in tow, disappearing rapidly into the sparkling radiance far above.

She will not regret this choice. She won’t let herself, not when Terra is safe and Ven-

Oh, _no,_ Ven-

“Ven,” she has to fight the tightness in her throat, has to ignore the burn of tears in her eyes, “I’m sorry. I might not make it back as soon as I thought.”

She might not make it back at _all_ , but _no_.

No. She won’t let herself think like that.

“But I promise, I’ll be there one day to wake you up.” She has to. She _will_.

Aqua cannot leave her friends to suffer in darkness all alone, cut off from the world’s they had loved so much. She cannot leave the worlds to suffer under Xehanort’s cruel plans. She cannot let Master Eraqus’s death be in vain.

Aqua is a Keyblade Master.

She will not fail her friends next time.

_If there is a next time._

There might not be, with her falling into the deepest abyss and Terra limp and unresponsive and Ven asleep for who knows how long until his heart returns, strong enough to face the darkness that destroyed it-

Aqua may never see her friends ever again, and that fact hadn’t even occurred to her until it was far too late.

She screams as she falls, down down down.

She falls for a very long time.


End file.
